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Vital Stats The Challenge | The Solution | The Process |Unforseen Benefits | Measurements & Results | Lessons Learned How to raise the technology literacy of the ABA staff to help achieve leadership objectives? ABA believes that effective use of technology differentiates world-class
organizations. ABA's Management Information Systems (MIS) team had
long been aware that in-house technologies and the Internet were not
being leveraged to maximum efficiency and that it was difficult for
staff to "keep up." As a world-class solution provider for
its members, ABA saw the need to build a technologically confident
and competent staff to maintain the Association's competitive advantage. ABA's 90-day Learn 50 New Things Campaign drove management and staff to improve their technology literacy and created an environment that gave them permission to learn. In a brainstorming session, the MIS team agreed to encourage ABA staff to learn 10 new technology "things." A "thing" was defined as a helpful new hardware or software function or feature that could be incorporated into daily work. For example, these included useful "short cuts" for software applications, tips for using GroupWise scheduling tools effectively, learning to delete several messages in one fell swoop, etc. Before long, 10 things expanded into a stretch-target of 50 things and ABA's "Learn 50 New Things" campaign was born. The campaign's short-term goals were to improve the technology literacy of management and staff in the following areas:
"Give them breathing room to learn." While technology training had always been a regular item on ABA's agenda, the 30 "Technology Coordinators" (representatives from each department who act as MIS liaisons) found that staff members were routinely being pressured to opt out of basic training programs due to the daily demands of work and emergency "fire-fighting." There were always "more important things to do" and it became clear that the organization's lip service to the importance of technology was not being met in practice. There was always "time to do it over but no time to do it right." Through a carefully planned series of "technology tip sessions", brown-bag lunches, one-on-one user sessions and other events that were designed to take minimum time and provide maximum opportunities for learning how to use technology more effectively, the MIS team set a manageable 90-day window for the entire campaign. Specifically, the 50 New Things campaign involved multidisciplinary and decidedly non-technical teams working together to achieve a common technology education goal. ABA's four-phase technology literacy campaign is summarized below. Phase One: Pre-Campaign Kick-Off The campaign was a "top-down" initiative, carefully positioned and sold to senior management as a management tool. Prior to beginning the campaign, the MIS team:
Once the objectives and benefits were communicated, management teams were given the widest latitude to implement their own technology initiatives to enhance departmental productivity. ABA's managers supported creating this "space to learn," and agreed that they would lead by example, fully participating in the campaign.
On October 6, 1999, ABA's Executive Vice President led the kick-off, placing the objective to Learn 50 New Things in 90 Days squarely in the context of ABA's overall technology objectives and commitment to world-class service. The kick-off event featured a festive celebration with balloons and refreshments and distribution of Learn 50 New Things progress report cards. Four PCs manned by staff experts from different departments were stationed around the room, each giving tips on a different technology topic to anyone who wanted to stop by before leaving the kick-off celebration. Phase Three: The Campaign ABA's MIS staff employed the "90/10" rule - - based on the assumption that only 10% of people will respond to any given communiqu? - - to communicate the initiative to all employees using 10 different media from newsletter to e-mail to intranet postings, etc. The Learn 50 New Things knowledge base comprised:
Because "you don't know what you don't know," the MIS department gave users a starting point by providing a basic competencies inventory. Example of a basic competency: enter appointments onto your electronic calendar. Enhanced competency: do a simultaneous search of 6 colleagues' calendars to find a free time to meet, and schedule a group appointment. ABA technology coordinators also helped their groups identify "things" to enhance the efficiency of employees, both in standard ABA applications and departmental-specific custom applications, such as accounting and HR systems. Non-technical directors, managers and staff met regularly to lead and participate in departmental and interdepartmental sessions to share "lessons learned" and to tackle common technology-related issues to enhance working effectiveness. Here's how:
Staff-Time and Cost Marathon Sessions Phase Four: Campaign Conclusion Another festive, all-staff celebration concluded the campaign. MIS shared final counts of things learned. ABA's executive vice president honored the technology coordinators and the many presenters from diverse departments who shared their knowledge. He spent several minutes interviewing those present willing to share their feedback on the whole experience. ABA's president, who couldn't be physically present, congratulated everyone via IP/TV. Awards were given for:
While the campaign goal was to improve the technology literacy of ABA staff and management, several unintended benefits were realized as well:
"Low-tech" colored checklists labeled "Learn 50 New Things - Win 50 Dollars!" were distributed to employees to record their progress. This method was chosen to "meet people where they were" and charge them to validate this record throughout the 90-day campaign with their department's technology coordinator. Each card contained 10 entries under the following technology headings:
Participants were by no means limited to learning 50 new things. A few learned up to 100 and even 150 new technology applications. Those employees who participated were showered with "goodies" from special campaign T-shirts to distinctive coffee mugs that displayed ABA's logo and slogan "World-class Solutions, Leadership and Advocacy," and "Embrace Technology." Another measurement was a qualitative, subjective survey ABA staff completed in October at the start of the campaign and again in January, upon its completion. The survey sought to measure how technically proficient ABA staff felt they were with a variety of technologies, and how frequently they used web technologies. At the close of the campaign, ABA's MIS staff determined not to "get bogged down" in post hoc measurement and skills testing, primarily due to the overall high caliber of ABA employees and high levels of confidence in their capabilities. Overall, ABA achieved:
There were many skeptics at the beginning. During the closing feedback session, one manager commented, "I thought that this was the stupidest idea I ever heard and? I was wrong!" One "old-timer" said she was really doubtful about being able to learn 50 new things, and then, once she started, she just couldn't stop! She went on to learn over 100 new things. One director, who was initially somewhat overwhelmed at the thought of learning 50 New Things commented that the campaign was so 'user-friendly' that it was a "joy and a pleasure." Despite the low attendance for "Marathon Days", which was
a disappointment, the most gratifying part of the entire exercise
for the MIS team was the positive commentary from management and staff.
For its part, ABA is committed to "continue the learning."
The exercise was not an end in itself but "the beginning of a
mindset, our commitment to education and to making technology work
for us, not against us."
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